Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor illustrated. In a Series of Drawings from Nature by Thomas Allom. With an Historical Account of Constantinople, and Descriptions of the Plates by the Rev. Robert Walsh . First Series. [Together with] . Second Series WALSH, Reverend Robert and Thomas ALLOM Art,Australia,British Isles,Signed,South Australia

London, Fisher, Son & Co., [1839 and 1840]. Quarto, two volumes, [iv], xxxvi, 84 pages plus a map, 46 full-page plates (including an unlisted plate facing page 54, 'Ancient Archway of Cavern in the Balkan Mountains'), and an engraved vignette title page; and [iv], 100 pages (including the cumulative index) plus a double-page map, 48 full-page plates and an engraved vignette title page. Most plates have the original tissue-guards. Matching full dark green morocco, the spines lettered and decorated in gilt in compartments, all sides decorated in gilt and blind; all edges gilt; covers a little bumped and lightly worn at the corners; leather a little scuffed and marked; scattered foxing and minor signs of handling (more so in the first volume, which is inexpertly reinserted in its binding, with a rear endpaper that would be greatly improved by removing and replacing it, and a front free endpaper that appears to be original but salvaged from the rear and amateurishly lined with tissue); overall, a decent set which certainly presents well on the shelf. Provenance: John Michael Skipper (1815-1883), artist, solicitor, and South Australian pioneer, with his ownership initials on the engraved title page of the first volume, and his signature and most interesting inscription of the front free endpaper of the second volume: 'J M. Skipper | from Mrs. Thomas | March 14th. 1841' (his mother-in-law). Skipper was born in Norwich, the son of a solicitor; 'he was intended for the law but was more interested in art in which he was encouraged by his uncle. In 1833 he abandoned his studies to become a midshipman in the East India Co.'s "Sherbourne" bound for Calcutta. On his return, deciding to migrate, he arranged to be articled to Charles Mann, the new South Australian advocate-general, and sailed in the "Africaine", arriving at Holdfast Bay on 6 November 1836. He sketched scenes on the voyage, and met Frances Amelia, eldest daughter of Robert Thomas; he married her on 28 December 1839' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Accordingly, these volumes not only date from the foundation years of British settlement in the colony, they also come from two of the first settlers. They are offered together with a copy of 'The Diary and Letters of Mary Thomas (1836-1866). Being a Record of the Early Days of South Australia. Edited by Evan Kyffin Thomas' (Adelaide, 1925 [revised and enlarged third edition]/ 1915). It is an account of the Thomas family's journey to South Australia on the 'Africaine' in 1836, and the fascinating early years of colonization as described in Mary's letters to her brother in England. Her husband Robert was the first newspaper publisher in South Australia and important details of the practical difficulties involved in the printing business are included. This is one of 300 unbound copies of the original 1925 edition discovered in the family attic in 1985; the entire cache has now been attractively bound in full reconstituted morocco. It comes in a slipcase with a fine copy of the first edition of a companion family volume, 'Maisie. Her Life in her Letters from 1898 to 1902', edited by Joan Kyffin Willington (Adelaide, 1992). Each book in this 'collectors' duo' contains a numbered certificate of authenticity, signed by Joan Kyffin Willington, Maisie's granddaughter and Mary's great-great-granddaughter. [4 items].